Chamber and committees

Mr Cameron, do you want to come back in?

That is extremely helpful. I am sure that we will put our heads together to work out what this committee might do. In addition, we have a Conveners Group for the conveners of all the subject committees in the Parliament. It might be helpful to do a report for them about what you have suggested, as the subject committees tend to do much more in-depth analysis of their sectors than this committee does. We will take that on board and will feed back to you.

We now move into private session.

Good morning, and welcome to the Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee’s 23rd meeting in 2023.

Our first agenda item is the declaration of interests as a result of membership change. I put on record again my thanks to Ben Macpherson, Alasdair Allan and Maurice Golden for their commitment to the committee, and I wish them well in their new roles. I give a warm welcome to Kate Forbes, Keith Brown and Alexander Stewart, who join the committee. I invite each of them to declare any relevant interests.

Before we move on to our next agenda item, I point out that we are in a hybrid meeting. Our deputy convener, Donald Cameron, joins us remotely. I hope that we will be able to manage questions and interactions on that basis.

I thank the witnesses from the Office for the Internal Market for attending. We are joined by Murdoch MacLennan, who is the chair of the Office for the Internal Market, and Rachel Merelie, its senior director. I welcome them warmly to the committee. I invite Mr MacLennan to give an opening statement.

Might you publish the requests or data about the number of requests?

We move to questions from committee members, beginning with Neil Bibby.

I have a supplementary question on the issue of businesses that have been agile and pivoted. Unfortunately, we are also aware of a number of businesses that have ceased trading as a result of the post-Brexit situation. Do you collect data on the number of businesses in particular sectors or the scale of the trading in those sectors in order to understand whether businesses are ceasing to trade at all as a result of post-Brexit relations?

Good morning and welcome to the 22nd meeting in 2023 of the Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee.

We have received apologies from Maurice Golden. I would like to express my thanks to him, Ben Macpherson and Dr Alasdair Allan, who are all moving on to new parliamentary duties, for having served on the committee. We wish you all well for the future and thank you for your incredible contribution to the work of the committee.

Our first agenda item is to look at how devolution is changing post-European Union. Our inquiry has been on-going and our final evidence session is with the cabinet secretary.

I welcome to the committee Angus Robertson MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Constitution, External Affairs and Culture, and, from the Scottish Government, Gerald Byrne, head of constitutional policy, and Euan Page, head of United Kingdom frameworks.

I invite the cabinet secretary to make an opening statement on the inquiry.

Thank you for your opening statement and for your letter in response to the committee’s questions that arose from our inquiry on how devolution is changing now that we are outside the EU.

I have a topical question to ask. Yesterday, we heard news of the success of the Alcohol (Minimum Pricing) (Scotland) Act 2012, with a 13 per cent reduction in the number of alcohol deaths in Scotland. It has proved to be a policy that works in that area. There is a request that the minimum unit value be increased, which is one of the things that we have covered in the committee as being a potential grey area following the United Kingdom Internal Market Act 2020 and withdrawal from the EU due to Brexit. Is the Government considering that at the moment? Are you concerned about it?